So, this post has been a long time in coming. It is in fact my first blog post ever, period. Welcome to the information era, eh? In any event, I am writing because I am virtually bursting at the seams. I cannot keep it in and it must come out, so here goes...
I, a political science graduate student, just spent the last two hours giving a convincing enough explanation of free market principles to two graduate student majoring in economics, to the point that I convinced one to investigate Hayekian arguments countering Keynes, and one to read Thomas Sowell. And they are intrigued and curious and willing, and I didn't even have to tie their hands behind their backs and feed them little spoonfuls of Milton Friedman's Free to Choose. This is following a lecture on macro-economic policies that I didn't even follow, as perhaps one of three people who were not necessarily following, in a crowd of thirty econ student who were nodding vigorously.
So.
It's not that I am particularly erudite, I am just really passionate about the beauty of the market and the power of choice that economic and political liberty grants to the individual to make for themselves what they will (as my friends can attest !!). And it came across!! Which is very very exciting, because prior to this I was sort of wondering what the heck I am doing in an economics conference with true blue economists who actually know the difference between fiscal and monetary policy (I am learning!!).
But you see (I said), fiscal and monetary policy are all nice as long as you remember that they require taxing individuals of their hard earned money, either directly, or indirectly through stealing the value of their savings by printing cash and causing inflation. And there needs to be a damn good reason why you feel it necessary to steal money from the population, to then distribute it as you see fit. And that's what we talked about.
Because the economy is not an engine, its simply made up of people making decisions that work best for them. Bureaucrats are not wiser than most people, and cannot make better decisions for most people. Worse, they tend to spend other people's money much more recklessly than the person who is being taxed, primarily because they don't have to pay for it. And essentially markets are risky, the modern world is risky, yet in this century of Air-BnB and 3D printed houses, commodities are also cheaper, life is better and longer, and we are wealthier than we ever were. And with modern information technology, apps and big-data, we have essentially all become capitalists, niche market entrepreneurs and potential innovators.
And in the end, we do not need a nanny state, we can be great, creative, responsible, ethical human beings! We can learn and try, and fail and try again, and fail again, and then benefit from the success of others, and in the process we can teach a man to fish, turn over a new leaf, spend longer leisure hours with family and community rather than "texting" or bowling alone, and even buy a coffee for 5 shekels at coffix and make unlimited overseas calls for 50 shekels a month. Because in the free market, commodities grow cheaper and the free time to pursue values, and meaning and happiness grows ever larger.
And still....we have a milk cartel and a honey cartel and an egg cartel and a banking cartel and a port monopoly and stifling teacher's unions, and airport workers unions and post office workers unions. We have high import tariffs and higher income tax and even higher corporate taxes. We have a brain drain as doctors flee the country, and a terrible education system, and galloping private debt and virtually no private savings. We have insanely high barriers to entry in a tiny entrepreneurial sector and an even more insanely rigid real estate market with a tight-fisted government ownership over 93% of the land. We have rampant corruption and a crony capitalist state and heavy protectionism of Israel's Tuna producers, even though we HAVE NO TUNA SWIMMING ANYWHERE IN THIS WHOLE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY AND WE MUST IMPORT FROZEN TUNA TO KEEP THIS INSANE INDUSTRY OPEN. And every single person in the market pays for tariff-ed tuna at 7 shekels a can (on average). And this is only the tip of the iceberg
I spoke about the free market, and now two people are interested.
Awesome.
AWESOME!!
Onward! Seriously though, because we have a lot of work to do.
